Monument record MDO47877 - Roman cemetery, Bridport Road, Dorchester

Roman inhumation cemetery outside the West Gate of the Roman town and mainly on the north side of the Bridport Road. The cemetery extends from The Grove, approximately 120m north of the Bridport Road to the Bridport Road, and west as far as the Water Works.

A number of Roman inhumations have been found to the West of the West Gate of Durnovaria, and to the North of Bridport Road. This is clearly a major inhumation cemetery.

SY68639076. An unspecified number of inhumations found circa 1938 while laying drains between the married quarters of the Depot Barracks.

SY68669076. About 6 inhumations found in 1940 while digging air raid trenches in the Depot Barracks. No objects were found.

SY68589066. Part of an inhumation in a chalk-cut grave was exposed in a water-pipe trench along the east side of St Thomas Road in 1962. There were indications of another burial.

SY68559069. Human skulls and bones were found on the site of a house in Mountain Ash Road between 1886-1901. Two burials, possibly in stone coffins (probably slab-like cists, were found circa 1921 in the road close to the railway cutting.

SY684907. A number of skeletons buried in chalk-cut graves, some with brown pots near their heads, were found in drain laying along the north side of Prospect Road shortly before WWI. Some nails adhering to wood were also noted.

SY687906 and SY685905. An unknown number of inhumations were found in the 1880s on both sides of Bridport Road.

Part of a metallic lustred beaker of 4th-century New Forest Ware was found in the railway cutting in 1854.

SY68509062. An extended inhumation in a chalk-cut pit was found at Hawthorn Lodge in 1965. The filling contained a sherd of black ware, probably Roman.

SY68459060. Inhumation, evidently in a stone cist, found 1940 in building the tall chimney at the Steam Laundry, Bridport Road. It was broken up before inspection.

SY68339066. An inhumation said by two observers to have been buried sitting upright, was found at the water Works circa 1940. Cooking vessels laced between the knees were taken away soon after discovery.

SY68709068. Approximately 50 graves of a late Roman cemetery were recorded during construction work at the Crown Buildings site in 1971. Most of them were destroyed during the excavation of a large cellar under the west wing, but a stoutly constructed lead coffin was recovered. It contained the skeletonof a man packed in plaster and accompanied by a head of human hair and a separate pigtail.

SY68819069. A sigle inhumation was found in the Corporation Yard in Poundbury Road in 1931. An armlet of 3-ply twisted bronze wire with soldered hook and terminals, found on the skeleton's right arm, is in the County Museum.

SY68849078. About 30 inhumations found circa 1920 in making the former Women's Institute tennis courts. No objects were recovered and the burials seem to have been disturbed since many of the skulls were broken. Two more extended burials were found in 1965 some 30 feet apart on either side of a pair of parallel ditches. (1-4)

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1964, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1963, 100 (Serial). SDO63.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1966, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1965, 110 (Serial). SDO65.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 582 (Monograph). SDO150.

<4> Sparey-Green, C , Paterson, M, and Biek, L, 1981, A Roman coffin-burial from the Crown Buildings Site, Dorchester: with particular reference to the head of well-preserved hair. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 67-100 (Article in serial). SDO9696.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1410206 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:41PM